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Article History

Received: 26 August 2024

Accepted: 15 January 2026

First Online: 30 January 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: This study was reviewed and approved by the CTS-UNINOVA Ethics Committee (Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the Centre of Technology and Systems (CTS)—Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias (UNINOVA)). Approval was granted under research project identification code 2024042101, with formal approval issued on 21 April 2024, prior to the commencement of any research activities. The scope of this approval encompassed all planned research activities, including group discussions and data collection procedures involving human subjects. All research procedures were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the approving institution and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments.

: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. Consent was collected by the Principal Investigator, SN-H, from adult participants engaged in group discussions, brainstorming and refinement on women-led sustainable innovation in small island agriculture. Each participant received an information sheet describing the purpose of the study, which was to examine women-led sustainable innovation in small island agricultural systems, explore women’s roles within these processes, and identify the key challenges and barriers affecting sustainable innovation in these contexts. Participants were informed that participation involved taking part in group discussions and brainstorming that would be audio or video recorded to ensure accurate analysis. They were explicitly informed that participation was voluntary, that they could withdraw from the study at any time without providing a reason, and that the study posed minimal risks, such as potential discomfort when discussing sensitive topics. Participants were assured that all recordings would be transcribed and anonymized so that no identifying details would appear in any dataset or publication. They were informed that their data would be processed confidentially and stored securely on encrypted drives accessible only to the research team, in compliance with the GDPR and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants were also informed that recordings would be permanently deleted after transcription and anonymization and that anonymized data could be used for academic publications, reports and presentations. Consent included permission for the secure retention of anonymized data for up to 10 years for research integrity purposes. Only individuals who signed the informed consent form agreeing to participate were included in the study. All participants provided written consent during the period from 1st of June 2024 to 15 of June 2024, prior to the commencement of any data-collection activities.